''Population Zero'' is a 2016
found footage crime thriller film directed by Adam Levins that premiered at the
Newport Beach International Film Festival
The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival have permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival be ...
on April 26, 2016.
The filmmakers were inspired to make the film after learning of the existence of
a small portion of
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...
that, under the
Sixth Amendment's
Vicinage Clause
The Vicinage Clause is a provision in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution regulating the vicinity from which a jury pool may be selected. The clause says that the accused shall be entitled to an ''"impartial jury of the State ...
, could enable one to commit a crime without having a jury be able to try them, thus creating "the
perfect crime
Perfect crimes are crimes that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (es ...
".
This idea was first written about in a ''
Georgetown Law Journal
''The Georgetown Law Journal'' is a student-edited scholarly journal published at Georgetown University Law Center. It is the flagship law review of the Georgetown University Law Center.
Overview
The ''Georgetown Law Journal'' is headquartered ...
'' article, "The Perfect Crime," by
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
law professor
Brian C. Kalt
Brian C. Kalt (born 1972) is an American legal scholar at the Michigan State University College of Law, particularly known for his research of the constitution of the United States.
Career
Kalt has taught at Michigan State University College o ...
,
and first dramatized in the 2007 novel "Free Fire" by
C. J. Box
Charles James Box Jr. (born 1958) is an American author of more than thirty novels. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, as well as several stand-alone novels, and a collection of short stories. The novels have been translated into 27 lan ...
, from which ''Population Zero'' borrows heavily.
Synopsis
The film is a "
mockumentary" examining the history of Dwayne Nelson, a suspected murderer. In 2009, Nelson confessed to shooting three men to death in Yellowstone National Park and despite his confession being accurately detailed, he was not convicted of the crimes because the crime occurred in an uninhabited area and as such, there is no chance of finding a jury to hear the trial. Years later
Julian T. Pinder examines the crimes and the legal loophole that allowed Nelson to walk free. As the film progresses Pinder begins to receive strange and frightening items, evidence of Nelson's crime.
Reception
In its opening week in Canada, the film grossed
Can$3,841 from 15 theatres.
''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' said that although the film was uneven in places it was also "creatively eerie". Shock Till You Drop praised the movie, commenting that "Knowing that ''POPULATION ZERO'' is a hypothetical scenario played out is immaterial. The question of whether the film is real or not is not the point. The point is that the federal government recognizes that there is a “Zone of Death” in one of its National Parks, making this film far more unsettling and disturbing than anything to spring from one’s imagination."
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10.
See also
*
Zone of Death (Yellowstone)
The Zone of Death is the area in the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park in which, as a result of a reported loophole in the Constitution of the United States, a person could theoretically avoid conviction for any major crime, up to a ...
*
''For the People'' season 2 episode 2 "This Is America" uses a similar concept, but with a character named Arthur Covington murdering his wife in the park
References
External links
*
* {{rotten-tomatoes, population_zero
2016 horror films
2016 films
Films set in 2009
2016 crime thriller films
American horror thriller films
Canadian horror thriller films
Found footage films
English-language Canadian films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s Canadian films
Films set in the Yellowstone National Park